Video Sundaes: Animated Music Videos

Hello friends, I know I've been a bit lax, but I promise I have good reasons lying around here somewhere. Many art-related ramblings and photos to post later, but for now here is a collection of music videos I dig that feature animation of some kind. (Chad VanGaalen not included, since he already got his own post.) I hope you enjoy them!

"Knowing the Things That I Know" by The Blow. Adorable. 'Nuff said.


"Flowers" by Emilie Simon. One of my all-time favorite music videos- it's a cute song with gorgeous stop-motion animation with stylization reminiscent of Tim Burton's and Tom Selleck's work.

"Schwarz zu Blau" by Peter Fox. I don't listen to his music, but I saw this video during a class presentation on contemporary German music. I don't really like the monkey thing, but I love the concept of graffiti coming to life and interacting with different drawings and such on the walls of a city.


"Year of the Dog" by The Lovely Sparrows. Again, don't listen to the music, but I dig the look of this video, with its carefully-rendered cut-paper technique. Thanks to the "Best Videos of 2008" list at the excellent Music for Kids Who Can't Read Good.


"Myriad Harbor" by The New Pornographers. They're one of my favorite bands, and they usually make pretty weird music videos. This one's got the band trapped inside of Dan Bejar's swirling, seemingly alive mane of hair. Love the use of color here, and the simple, uncluttered shapes.

Chad VanGaalen Animation

I've been meaning to share these superbly-animated music videos from Canadian singer-songwriter Chad VanGaalen. Aside from being an excellent musician, he's a talented animator and artist, incorporating fanciful colors and creatures with flowing, inter-connected movements. It's pretty trippy, and completely fascinating. He's worked on all of his own music videos and album covers, as well as those of a few other artists. Love his music, love his art- check him out already!




"Clinically Dead" (the first video and song I found from him, and still one of my favorites)


"Flower Gardens"


"Red Hot Drops"


"Molten Light" (this one is a little bit graphic, just fyi)


Holy Fuck- "Milkshake"

HONK!: Street Art?

I suppose you could call the HONK! festival "street art", but that description doesn't quite capture the energy of this annual event. Over Columbus Day weekend, activist marching bands paraded through Mass Ave. from Davis Square in Somerville to Harvard Square: blowing trumpets, pounding on drums, circling on decorated bikes and towering above the crowd on stilts. All with different causes, it seemed that the march was not so much a focus on any particular issue, but rather a way to bring together the community in a fun, aesthetically and musically-engaging awareness of their ability to be heard. The overarching theme of this year's parade was "Reclaim the Streets for Horns, Bikes, and Feet!" Plenty of each there were, and though the tunes blasting from the horns in each band were different, each blended almost seamlessly into the next as they made their way past the crowds. Check out the photos for a taste of this eclectic event.